1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure is generally directed to painting products, and more particularly to a paint roller assembly configured to roll paint on a surface right up to an adjacent wall, corner, or trim piece and to painting products with components or surfaces to which paint does not adhere.
2. Description of Related Art
The walls of a typical room are painted in two basic steps. The edges of a wall to be painted typically terminate at or abut against door and window frame trim, floor or baseboard trim, a ceiling-to-wall corner, a wall-to-wall corner, and the like. The majority of a wall surface is typically painted using a conventional roller. The edges are typically cut in using a brush or other similar edging utensil. Sometimes, the surfaces of the adjacent wall, ceiling, or trim piece are taped off to prevent paint from contacting or adhering to such surfaces that are not to be painted. Taping off and cutting in or edging an entire room is typically an extremely time-consuming and labor intensive endeavor.
A typical paint roller assembly carries a cylindrical, elongate roller cover on a bearing element or cage. The exterior of the roller cover has a textured pile material for holding and releasing paint. The typical roller assembly also has a handle and a support arm extending from the handle. The support arm usually has an axle that carries the bearing element or cage. The axle typically protrudes from one end of the roller cover and the cage on the paint roller assembly and is connected to the support arm. The opposite ends of the roller cover and cage are free and typically exposed.
When the roller cover is repeatedly loaded with a supply of paint, the exposed faces and edges on the free ends of the roller cover and the cage also get covered with paint. Paint on the free ends of the roller cover and cage will be left on the adjacent trim, ceiling, or wall surfaces that are not to be painted. The structure of the end faces and end edges on the free end a typical roller cover and cage are also such that the roller cover is not capable of laying down or applying paint right up to the edge of the wall surface being painted. The typical paint roller assembly is not suitable for rolling paint right up to the edges of the wall surface being painted. Hence the need to cut in around the wall surface to be painted. If the roller assembly is flipped, a portion of the support or axle will instead contact the adjacent wall, ceiling, or trim surface that is not to be painted. This interference also prevents the roller cover from reading close up to the edge of the wall surface being painted. During use the exposed portion of the support arm or axle at the support arm end of the cage and roller cover also gets covered with paint, which can result in paint getting on the adjacent wall, ceiling, or trim piece even when the roller assembly is flipped.
Others have tried to improve upon or solve these difficulties in order to speed up the entire painting process and/or to simplify or eliminate the cutting in or edging process. Paint brushes with edger devices or guards have been devised that are intended to eliminate the need for taping off a room. Such brushes are at least intended to allow the user to more quickly cut in a room without having to be so precise. These types of solutions still require the room to be cut in separate from the process of rolling the majority of the wall surfaces. Paint roller assemblies have also been devised that include a shield on one or more ends of the roller portion. However, the shield will still become covered with paint when the roller assembly is dipped in a paint tray or other paint supply. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,732. Such a shield has not been found to be very effective.
The more times a user dips or rolls a paint roller assembly in the paint supply, the more the parts of the assembly, other than the roller cover, becomes covered in paint. This can result in paint inadvertently dripping onto floor surfaces and other items in the room during painting. This can also result in unwanted paint getting on surfaces that are not to be painted but that are adjacent the wall surface to be painted. This can further make clean-up of the paint roller assembly more difficult and time consuming.